Sustainable Cities and Eco-Energy Towns

Overview

Cities are responsible for much of the world’s economic output, energy consumption, and carbon emissions. In addition, many towns across the world face the challenge of availability of reliable and affordable energy. The challenge of transforming towns and cities into greener, sustainable, highly efficient areas requires global action focused on energy efficiency and energy system integration.

The Sustainable Cities and Eco-energy town initiative of the Clean Energy Ministerial aims to advance effective collaboration and accelerate implementation of policies on a national and local level. Through its work, the initiative facilitates sharing of best practices and learnings between cities and also addresses important energy issues in small and remote communities.

The initiative targets closer working and reaping synergies from the national and local collaboration to improve standards of living in urban areas and a secure energy future in rural areas.

Joint action and promotion of best practices can save 700 million tons of oil equivalent by 2025.

Goals

The initiative’s goal is overall improvement of energy efficiency and sustainability in cities and towns as well as rural areas for ensuring a secure and sustainable energy future, through effective benchmarking, knowledge transfer, creating and sharing of best practices, and implementing targeted campaigns.

Key activities

The Sustainable Cities and Eco-energy Towns initiative fosters collaboration and knowledge transfer to strengthen the current links and activities in the participating countries and expedite the transition to cleaner and sustainable cities, towns, and rural areas. Through its activities, the initiative aims to:

Develop benchmarking and an international database that will include best practices related to the issue of sustainable development of cities from all over the world; conduct a joint study with other international organizations.

Engage with key stakeholders through workshops and international meetings (for example, the ‘Second International meeting of Mayors dedicated to energy efficiency and sustainable development of the cities’ and ‘the 1st Eco-energy Town Workshop,’ and so on).

Increase awareness of sustainable cities development and the Eco-Energy Town model among other CEM member and non-member countries.